Prosecutor Charges Marijuana Business Attorney

An attorney who successfully returned money seized from a dispensary owner has now been changed with criminal action. The case is being called “vindictive prosecution.” It appeared Bonnie Dumanis had lost. As San Diego’s district attorney, Dumanis had seized more than $324,000 from a local medical marijuana distributor during a January 2016 raid. But in May, with no charges filed against James Slatic, the operation’s owner, and no indication any charges were coming after almost a year and a half, a judge ordered Dumanis to return $100,000 seized from the personal bank accounts of Slatic and his family. The money was expected within 10 days. For Dumanis, who is exiting the post on July 7 following a rare decision to resign mid-term, it would be an embarrassing footnote on her career. Instead, within two weeks, Dumanis filed criminal charges after all — not only against the owners and employees of Med-West, a dispensary that operated in Kearny Mesa until the raid, but against Med-West’s attorney, Jessica McElfresh. As the San Diego Union Tribune reported, Dumanis alleges McElfresh conspired to conceal “evidence of illegal activities,” by making sure that manufacturing equipment used at the dispensary was removed prior to a city inspection. According to the criminal complaint, Med-West distributed more than $3 million worth of illegally manufactured hash oil across the country — charges that Dumanis said took 16 months to emerge because she wanted to “get it right,” she told the newspaper. But for most observers, the curious timing — right after Dumanis was ordered to give Slatic his money back — is tell-tale evidence of a “vindictive prosecution” filed to escape the ignominy of returning money to a medical cannabis seller, and an ominous warning from prosecutors to all other marijuana defense attorneys: if you win, we’ll make sure you lose. McElfresh has declined to comment on the story, and she may practice law in the meantime while the charges against her are pending. Since admitting guilt in a criminal case would likely mean punishment from the state bar association — up to and including losing the ability to practice — observers say that McElfresh will likely take the case to trial, a process that could take more than a year. In the meantime, however, having a criminal charge hanging over her head may make it difficult for her to obtain new clients. And the chilling effect is likely to extend to other attorneys who handle marijuana cases. “This is clearly a vindictive prosecution arising from the court’s order that they return the seized funds,” said Henry Wykowski, a former federal prosecutor who is now general counsel to the National Cannabis Industry Association, in comments to MJBizDaily. “As bad as that is in and of itself, this is clearly calculated to send a chill to the attorneys that defend cannabis businesses, that they can become targets.” “This is just not proper.” McElfresh’s client, Med-West, distributed cannabis oils and other products to other dispensaries in the San Diego area, which…

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